Transfers are Painful

We are three weeks from transfers, and already I am dreading it.  Now we have had Elder Kervinen with us for two transfers (12 weeks), and he will leave us and go home.  What a great young man he is.  He is from Finland, strong and good looking, very obedient and hard working, and most importantly, he has a soft and kind heart. He is very easy to love. He is artistic and great on computers, so I can get his help with about any difficulty, and he always has time to help without complaint.

Elder Kervinen, teaching other missionaries.

Elder Hollister, left, and Elder Kervinen.  Elder Hollister went home last transfer, and I had grown to love him, too.  He is a second year Air Force Cadet and and got his appointment this time (after his mission) from the Vice President of the United States after going through a special cadet board.  Leaving the Academy for a mission does not guarantee you will get in again, so he had to go through a special review to get a nomination.

I don't know for sure, but I think Elder Kishi may be transferred away this time, too.  He was in the office when we got here, and I think it has been five transfers for him.  I'm sure he's ready to be out sharing the gospel more than he has been able to while working in the office.  He has really learned a lot of English, though.  Even in the five months we've been here (through three transfers) his English has obviously improved.

I had mentioned in another post that I have been doing the mission blog.  Elder Kishi was one of those missionaries who didn't send in information about himself before his mission.  So I asked him to fill out the information sheet and then translate a summary of it for me.  It is so "Kishi," and I simply must share it.  It's another great example of the Japanese English that I love to hear and read, but it also reflects his love for his family and for life.  He will complete his two years and go home in November, and we have been encouraging him to get an education, and to consider applying to BYU-Hawaii.  We hope that he will.  So here's what he wrote (with his permission):

Elder Ibuki Kishi

I introduce my beloved family.

I come from a family of twelve people.

Beginning at the eldest Eiji Nobuko Hidetomo Tendo Reika Manami Ibuki Shue Taiga Hyuga Isshin Fudo and my Grandmother and a dog.

Everyone is always cheerful and we get along great.

Hidetomo is a return missionary from Tokyo.

Tendo is less active, but he is so kind and he helps our family a lot.

Reika is a most beautiful woman of all over the world I believe. She is a return missionary also.

Manami is a most cute woman of all over the world. She is serving as a missionary in the Sapporo mission and she entered the MTC at the same time as me.

Elder Kishi and Elder Berrett, right.
Elder Berrett is the recorder in the office.  I think we get to keep him another transfer or two.  He is so helpful to anyone, any time.  He is good to the core.  He has learned about a few things that I don't care much for, and loves to tease me about it by pretending he is planning to do those things when he gets off his mission.  

Ibuki is me!

Shue is a most charming girl of all over the world. I can testify. She is so cheerful girl.

Taiga is cool boy more than me. He has a good sense of what is just and right.

Hyuga is in a rebellious stage now, but still a good boy.

Isshin is cute chubby little boy, hopefully not too chubby, but he is always happy.

Fudo is obedient and pure and everybody loves him!

My father is so kind and he is the foundation of our family.

And my mother surport to our dad, she is blight, and she always has smile, and she has a very young hart.

Very cheerful family and the best family in the world!!!

I grown up in this church, because of that, I never thought about the Gospels truth until begin to think about to go or not to a mission.

But since I decided to go to a mission, I pray and read the BOM a lot, and I made a more time to think about the Gospel, and that makes my testimony.

If we pray with humble might God will answer to us. And I know that when we reading a scripture God will stay by us. And I know that the Book of Mormon is true!

I never had a diligence to try something, therefore I seeked a optunity that be able to try with diligence. My elder brother went to a mission, and when I hear his story I began to want to go a mission. Even I have a lot of weak, I want to help to the people who have some weakness with me, and I want to make all people smile. I don’t have strong testimony or teaching skills but I will study hard! And I will be a good missionary! I want to be a be loved missionary.

My hobbies are singing and cutting paper, card tricks, juggle, etc...

My goal is to make a great family. I want to make happy family like my now family. And my dream was going mission, so... that comes true, Im finding a new dream.

I am cheerful and positive. Because I have a lot brothers and sisters I can make relaitionship, doesn’t care age or sex. I love to make other peoples happy. I am weak for formal things.

Because I know Elder Kishi, I can just hear his voice as I read this.

These darling girls are Millie, age 4 and Hazel, age 6, two of President Baird's brother's daughters.  
By the time they left to go back to the US, Elder Kishi was their idol.

Last week, President and Sister Baird had visitors from Utah arrive.  They have four daughters, but the youngest two are 4 and 6.  President Baird brought the family up to the office to meet us, and then he asked Elder Kishi to cut some elephants and dragons and things out of paper.  Before long, I could hear the girls just laughing and laughing.  Kishi had them wrapped around his finger, so to speak, with what he did and said.  He just has a real gift with kids.  The children at church flock around him each Sunday and he has trouble getting away from them.  He would make the world's best elementary school teacher.

I will miss him when he is no longer in the office.  Learning to love these awesome young men and then telling them goodbye--the hardest part of the mission!

Oh, and a couple more beauty shops:  My Bud, and Grace Hair

Pottery

For your beauty shop names:  "Click Hair", and "Hair Creation Faith."

Before Japan, I had never had the opportunity to try working with clay.  When Sister Baird mentioned that we would have an opportunity to go try doing it, I didn't get all that excited.  I knew I wouldn't be good at it, and I wasn't sure I wanted to even waste the time.

But then we went to Seto.  Seto is famous for it's pottery.  The city has some of the world's finest clay for pottery, and ancient spots have been found in the area where clay was dug out for making pottery centuries ago.  Sister Baird loves to take people who are visiting to a special shop where pottery making has been in the family, from generation to generation, for 16 generations.

This wonderful man started out doing something else when he was young, but as his father aged and there was no one to take his place, the idea of continuing on in the family tradition called to him.  He answered affirmatively, and I'm glad.

C

   Cato san and his sweet mother.

He is a kind and happy man, and from all I can tell, he is very glad he is a potter. He is well-known for his work, and he is a master.  The items on display at his little shop are beautiful.  But the thing that really speaks of his mastery is to watch him.  He can make miracles with a lump of clay.  And he can teach like a master, too.

Lee and I went with Sister Baird and some family who had come to visit from Utah.  It was one of the most enjoyable, peace-giving, relaxing activities I've done in a long time.  I loved it.  I loved the feel of the clay in my hands, and I loved watching it respond to my touch.  I loved fashioning it into something useful.  And if I ever made a mistake, I could get help from "the touch of the master's hand."
He would be alongside to help, to coach, and to repair.

While Sister Dalton was here, Sister Baird
also took her to experience this.
She loved it as well.

When we had done the best we could, he would put on the final touch to make it beautiful.  Lee and I together made 8 small plates and 8 rice bowls.  We left them to be perfected in shape, cleaned up, fired and painted--again, by the master.  We now have some lovely, unique dishes to take home with us as a memory of Japan and working with a master.  And we did much of it ourselves.

How like life.  We are doing our best, shaping ourselves and our families to the best of our abilities.  But when things aren't quite perfect, we have the master's hand to fix our foibles and perfect what we can't perfect, so that after we have been fired and painted, we will be just as He wants us to be and much better than we ever thought we could be.  Oh, thank Heaven, for the touch of the Master's hand in our lives.

Kenrokuen Koen at Kanazawa

 Kenrokuen Park (koen) at Kanazawa has to be one of the prettiest places on the earth.  Fortunately, it wasn't destroyed in WW II.  The care that is given this park boggles my mind.  We got to see it in spring, but after the cherry blossoms were finished.  And they have a kind of sakura tree that is called the Chrysanthemum Cherry tree because each blossom has more than 300 petals on it, just like a chrysanthemum.  So if I had my way, we'd come back for fall, winter and early spring.

Lee took 400 pictures.  (Actually, that's not all that unusual for him, but it was really hard for me to choose just a few from 400.)  Once again, please just sit back and just enjoy the beauty.

This statue is one that is famous.  It's kind of the trademark of the park.

Look at this wonderful old tree, held up and bound together.

These are lady gardeners who were squatted down sweeping
the grass with short handled brooms.  But one of them noticed
something on the statue, and so they all had to
come and look.  I thought it made a cute picture.
The statue is Prince Yamato Takeru.

 

I love these tree trunks.

 

Notice the poles to hold up every limb?  This is done on many trees throughout the park.
There is heavy snow in the winter.  On November 1st, gardeners begin setting up "yukizuri" to protect the branches of the majestic old pine trees from heavy snow.  They erect really tall poles and hang ropes from them to hold up the branches.  It is a beautiful and famous sight.

To me, this is just amazing, and the photo doesn't show how really huge this tree is.

These men are sweeping in the water.
Perhaps they are cleaning away needles or mud.  We couldn't tell.

This is only one of many classic old trees,
many of them being helped to continue living.

 

I love how the base of these old trees look.  

In 1631, there was a big fire, so the lord of the nearby castle ordered a water system to be built.
There are ponds and fountains and waterfalls everywhere in the park.

Two big old things.  I thought this trunk was awesome!

Notice the thatched roof.
There was also a tea house with a thatched roof, the oldest building in the garden, built in 1774.

I loved the plants growing out of the rock.  

Finally, if you want to open a beauty shop, how about naming it "Hair Make Mop," or "Living Hair."  It was successful here.  I received the cutest card from Tamaki, who cuts my hair.  She asked some sweet questions about me, then said, "Moreover, hair should also come for the end.  I am waiting."  I'm pretty sure she was telling me my hair was probably getting long and I needed to come in.  She was right!

Jidokudani Yaen Koen at Nakano

At our home in Wilsonville, summer has arrived and they have openned the neighborhood swimming pool.  Last week, Lee and I were able to go to another pool--at the monkey park in Nakano, near Nagano, Japan, which most everyone has heard of.  What fun!  ("Yaen" means wild monkey; "Koen" means "park".)

Mom and baby, out for a little dip in the pool.

Here's why Nagano what able to host the Winter Olympics.

It was a beautiful 30-minute hike through lush green forest up to the area where, in an area about the size of a football field, we watched about 100 snow monkeys.  There is a river running nearby with rapids, but this pond and a few others in the area are hot springs.

Ah!  Who doesn't like nit picking!  It's heaven.

Just hangin out.

Ever wonder what a wet monkey looks like?

Jump
(When this little guy got out of the pool, he got out right by me.
He was about 4 inches from my shoes.  No fear.)

In the arms of love.

The signs said not to touch the monkeys.
Lee just put his hand out, and this little guy reached up
and gave him five.  Then off he went.

Can you see baby hanging on underneath mom?   

Or if you get tired of that, you can go piggyback.

Ahh!  Life is good!

After this yawn, I may just take a nap.

These four were having a fight.  They were back and forth
in these rocks, making sounds like they were really mad
at each other and chasing each other around.

You're not going anywhere till I get this nit outa here.

Just sittin and thinkin.

I loved this old guy.  He sat like this at the edge of the pool for a good 40 minutes.  What you can't see is a photographer just about two feet from his face and at the same level, just taking pictures.  I watched for a few minutes and this monkey would turn his head to the left, to the right, lean it to one side, then the other, etc.
It was almost as if he decided to go ahead and cooperate, giving the photographer a shot from every angle.

Hair Salons:  Hair Make NYMY, and Logic Hair.